I never thought I’d get into this. The IPL frenzie, I mean. Too much of pompous marketing hype, and a proof of what would happen if cricket was more than cricket and added bollywood and cheerleaders to the mix - thats what I thought. I had initially gotten some tickets from a friend, and had passed it on to some friends who showed more interest than me in the game. But when a couple of tickets were offered by a close family friend with the best seats in the stadium, it was a bit tempting to say yes, than to put it down and Yes I said.

This is the first time I am watching a live cricket match in the Chennai stadium and I am no sports reporter. So I hope the readers of this blog will be lenient should this fall short of an actual coverage.

The game was to start at 4pm today, but the ticket said that folks would be expected there a good two hours beforehand. Knowing how our folks have no sense of time these days - or are just enjoying an extra hour or so lazing on a saturday - we decided to play the first mover advantage and head to the stadium early. We reached there at around 2:45. The sun was still out. It was fairly hot, but a couple of folks - Mirchi Suchi, Benny Dayal etc were trying to keep a few people occupied and entertained with their live music.

At around, 3:30, the teams started coming in, and were going about their routine of stretches and excercises, and ten minutes before the game, the coin was tossed and Kolkata won it, preferring to bat.
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In one of the posts of Vinod Subramanian “Zyng – been there yet ?”, there was a comment by Michelle Binkley  

Hi Vinod, Read more

Hello,

Yes, I realise I haven’t kept up my end of the bargain and haven’t answered questions raised in this post. My defence: time. Or rather, the infinitesimally small amounts of it that I end up having. I intend to catch up with that this weekend.

So, anyway, to the point of the post.

Sharanya and Meena (and I) are organising a poetry event this Friday at Mocha. An open-mic session - which means we’ll keep the mic by the door. Errm…it means everyone’s invited and everyone can read out. Friday, 21st March is not only Good Friday, it’s the World Poetry Day. So the idea is to kill two birds with one metaphor. The idea is also to bring poetry to Madras city, and do it closer to the city than Thalankuppam was.

Head out to Sharanya’s blog for the details. But if you are click-lazy, here’s the short version.

What? Original + Translated poems, to celebrate World Poetry Day & Good Friday
Where? Mocha, upper-reaches.
When? Friday, 21st March, 10 AM
Why? Um, it sounded like a good idea?
Who? Sharanya Manivannan, Meena Kandaswamy and Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan

Is Chennai going the Singapore way? Naaah.. I don’t think so. It certainly doesn’t seem so from this penalty chart that the government has released!! While on the topic, I wonder what happened to the ‘other’ cleanup plans we have seen in the past? Remember the City cleanup proposal by Neel Metal Fanalca? or the port cleanup activity? or the river cleanup plan? or the innovative coastal cleanup competition? Anyway.. let’s not do a postmortem, and be as hopeful as before and believe that there is always a miracle waiting to happen that would solve all our country’s problems….

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During the Third Chennai Photowalk on January 13, 2007, we came across Bairagi Madam Arulmigu Thiruvengadamudayan Venkatesa Perumal Thirukovil in General Muthiah Mudali Street at Sowcarpet. Though some snaps were taken we did not go inside the temple. Read more

I find that I’ve been lax in answering/awarding points to answers for questions I’ve asked before. Apologies, and Amologies too.

Anyway,  here’re the pending answers.

The right answer to this question (where in Madras would you find that particular milestone) was of course Mount Road at Teynampet, just where it meets the Anna Flyover. The reason I posted the picture was the milestone seems to be facing the wrong way - for those who need the distance to Madras will not see it (are on the other side of the road) and those who do see milestone, see the distance to Dindigul (380 kms)

And so, we go to the next question.
The right answer to the q (how many horses on Mount road) is 4. The first horse is that of Sir Thomas Munro. The second and third are the two horses (and horseman/men) flanking the Anna Flyover and the fourth is that of Dheeran Chennimalai/Chinnamalai in Guindy, next to the Intellectual Property council/court building. Interesting info - the horse and horseman on either side of the flyover is said to be modelled after Vallavarayar vanthiyathevar (of Ponniyin Selvan fame).

Right then, to the winners.
Question #1 - Most of you got the right answer, BLN was the first on the Metblog. But the first was Navneet - he posted his answer in Flickr. But the credit for the second part of the answer (why?) goes to Nilu.

Question 2: Not many got the answer (or should I say not many answered) but Chenthil got the right number, and so did GVB. But it was GVB who correctly identified all the four horses. So credit to him

On that note, let me throw the gear backwards and throw an open challenge.
In the comments to this post, ask me any question about Madras - any thing at all - History, trivia, geography, culture, music, whatever*. I shall try to answer it (time permitting) without consulting the all-knowing Google. 10 points to the best question that I can answer, 5 to all good questions, and 30 to the question I don’t answer. We’ll keep this game going for as long as it can, and each new week, a new challenge. At the end of the month, I will buy coffee and a walnut brownie to the one with the most points. Game? Who goes first?

*My weekpoint is celebrity related stuff. But I shall give it a shot too.

Welcome! You aren’t in any place new. Only the looks have changed. And I hope you will agree that it has changed for the better. There are at least a couple of new feature including the polls and blog ranking system. These are simple to use, and if you can’t figure out how to use them intutively just hold on. I will be posting about them shortly.

The new design has motivated us (I am trying to get the authors to like the design!) to write better. Over the next few days, you should see evidence of our renewed efforts to blog better.

In the meantime, if you are facing any technical hitches (I haven’t come up with any) like dead links and so on, please let us know via a comment on this post.

Thanks, and do come back. We should be adding more posts in a day or two.

Listening to the Mambalam Sisters one evening, I was struck with inspiration - why not visit them? I was in See-people-when-you-can mode for a few weeks, and this interview was the result of that mental state (eh?). Chatting with them was surprisingly easy; my preconceived notions of uptight musicians stuck with their art was rather thrown out the window. What was more, they were eager to share things with me too.

As I push the gate open in a quiet street in Mambalam, the sound of music falls upon my ears, a young voice beginning the slow, steady ascension into the higher reaches of music. Twilight is falling around the tree-covered house, and I witness a scene of domestic clamour as I step in. A young girl is busy practicing music for the evening, while others run around with their homework, or eager to play.

Though everything else may appear shallow and repulsive, even the smallest task in music is so absorbing, and carries us so far away from town, country, earth, and all worldly things, that it is truly a blessed gift of God.

- Felix Mendelssohn

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The residents of Sakunthala street, Subramani street, Mahadevan street, Devamani street and Kuppuswamy street in Saidapet use Sakunthala street for boarding buses at the bus stand near Jayaraj Theatre. All the school students heading to Saidapet corporation school, college students and office goers of the area are facing difficulties in commuting through Sakunthala street because the condition of the road is pathetic.
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Chenthil during a recent mini-Vodkathon tells me (and a gang of five) that Tamil men never get laid before marriage. They also lack the confidence to approach and flirt with girls - brash and brazen. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know. He doesn’t either, really speaking. But if was funny in a way that I can’t quite bring out in this blog post.
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